After that day, Kareina’s condition continued to deteriorate.

Kareina refused to meet even when Donnis requested a visit. She only opened the letter Maria sent but didn’t reply.

Everything made of glass and porcelain in the Empress’s palace disappeared. Following the Emperor’s orders, the windows were also sealed, and when she occasionally walked in the garden, guards followed closely behind.

Kareina didn’t attempt to slit her throat with difficulty by breaking through surveillance or try to jump out by smashing windows. Even someone determined to die didn’t attempt it constantly in the first place.

Still, the pain in her chest gradually worsened and became harder to endure.

“I need more painkillers. Stronger ones than now.”

“This is really the last time. It’s too dangerous to go further.”

“I understand. Thank you.”

She begged the court physician to increase the amount of painkillers. Still, not all the pain was controlled. The pain that had been bearable when she believed there was a child now became unbearable.

Meanwhile, Raul began drinking again.

It was a means to avoid the nightmares that had resumed, but it seemed useless. The Emperor often woke in the middle of the night and began wandering the palace.

On a day when torrential rain poured from the sky, he visited the Empress’s palace.

When he arrived at the Empress’s palace, Raul discovered Kareina sitting on the stairs leading to the garden.

Around her stood three or four guards he had assigned. They seemed ready to immediately catch her if the surveillance target ran out into the rain.

Raul dismissed them and sat side by side on the stairs. Kareina, who had been extending her hand into the pouring rain, whispered vacantly as if out of habit.

“Please let me leave.”

“……”

Raul answered instead by taking off his jacket and draping it over her dry shoulders. As if that wasn’t an answer, Kareina withdrew her hand from under the rain and stared at him intently.

Raul, thinking of dozens of reasons why he couldn’t let her leave the palace, finally opened his mouth.

“Wynter is alive.”

Kareina’s eyes trembled faintly.

“And Simon’s king wants you. I’m sorry, but Simon’s internal situation isn’t good right now, Kareina.”

“So what?”

“Simon’s king intends to use you as a scapegoat to strengthen internal unity. You’re safest right now in the imperial palace.”

“……Ha.”

Kareina, who had an expression like she was hearing about someone else’s business, let out a laugh.

“So you’re safely protecting me inside the imperial palace now? How gracious. For the Empire’s Emperor to bestow favor on a mere commoner.”

She pulled up the slipping jacket and coughed dryly several times. Raul wrapped his arm around her trembling shoulders and pulled her toward him.

Unexpectedly, Kareina obediently leaned her head into his embrace. She seemed exhausted from the long outing.

Kareina, closing her eyes, muttered softly.

“But it would be better if Wynter kidnapped me again instead. This time he would have prepared enough poison not to fail at poisoning.”

“……Your body isn’t well either. Leaving it to the imperial palace’s doctors is best.”

“Who said they wanted to live that badly, Your Majesty?”

Kareina, still not opening her eyes, raised her hand and pointed at the air. The pouring rain shattered finely on the back of her hand.

“Do you remember the day I fell into that lake over there?”

He realized what she was trying to point at was the wide lake absorbing the pouring rain entirely. Raul, looking at the lake’s surface that appeared black, nodded.

“I remember. All my memories returned long ago.”

“Ah.”

Kareina hesitated, then continued.

“The day I fell into the lake, I said it was an accident, but it actually wasn’t. That day too, I wanted to sink into that lake and never wake up again. So I threw away everything Your Majesty gave me and planned to make myself disappear last, but Ginny happened to find and save me.”

“……”

“It means I’ve wanted to die for a long time already. So saying you’ll keep me locked up here to protect me isn’t convincing at all.”

Though unprepared, sentences poured out of her mouth like flowing water.

“And about those contraceptives.”

The voice that continued began to tremble little by little.

“I didn’t forcibly take contraceptives and spend nights with Your Majesty with the intention of saving Philip. Sabie told me to bear his child…… But since I couldn’t have your child, he forced me to use contraception. But I really didn’t intend to follow those words. I took it just once in front of him, and that was all.”

Raul, listening blankly to the pouring words, asked with a pale face.

“Don’t tell me that bastard did something to you—”

“……Ah.”

Kareina let out a laugh and retorted.

“Please dispel any suspicion that there was actually an improper relationship. Just saying it out loud is horrifying enough.”

She couldn’t understand herself why she was saying these things.

But when she felt the strength in Raul’s large hand wrapped around her shoulder a moment later, Kareina realized what she had been trying to do.

She wanted to hurt Raul somehow. She wanted to inflict some degree of pain, if not the same amount, on the man who had hated her, taken what she had, and ultimately given her the pain of losing a child. She wanted him to know how agonizing it had been by his side. It could be called petty revenge or empty words.

But did Raul get hurt because of that?

Kareina, who had been quietly still, buried her face in the heartbeat ringing in her ears. Between the reassuring thumping heartbeats came faint but clear and rough sobbing mixed in.

A tingling sensation spread from the center of her heart. But the brief sense of victory was quickly consumed by the question of why.

But why?

Why was he hurt by my unhappiness?

“Your Majesty.”

She wanted to lift her head and check the man’s face. However, his large hand prevented her from rising, so she couldn’t.

She made no further attempts. He had confusing aspects anyway. It was the same Raul who locked her in an underground prison yet immediately ran to her and whispered for her to live, and it was Raul who endlessly confessed like a sweet lover after losing his memory.

Perhaps this aspect had tormented Kareina even more.

But right now, the body’s pain was too severe and her head too heavy to think about contradictions.

Listening to the refreshing sound of torrential rain and the warm heartbeat, Kareina fell asleep.

When she opened her eyes the next day, Kareina was lying on the bed in the Empress’s palace. She had no memory of falling asleep. She could only tell another tedious day had begun by looking at the wooden medicine bowl the maid had left behind.

Once again, Simon’s ambassador visited the imperial palace.

The middle-aged ambassador with a mustache requested the transfer of Kareina Adrian in a rather stiff manner. The request was flatly rejected. This ambassador stayed in the imperial palace for only a few minutes before being rejected.

Of course, the requesting side no longer expected Raul to grant the request. It was merely building justification that they had sought peaceful solutions many times.

And it was the same for Tirantus.

“The extradition request for Wynter Tirant has been rejected again.”

“Good work.”

At the consecutive rejections of extradition requests, Raul nodded calmly. As much as Simon requested they hand over Kareina Adrian, Tirantus was also requesting Wynter Tirant’s extradition.

Reports that requests were being ignored continued to pour toward the imperial palace.

Still, it wasn’t a declaration of war yet.

At the military meeting, the situation at the border region was mentioned.

“Not many people live in the border region with Simon due to frequent appearances of bandits and territorial disputes. The environment is harsh too.”

“Roughly how many residents are there?”

“If it’s the frontline, three villages with a total of about two thousand people.”

“If we expand the range?”

“About twelve thousand people would be affected if war breaks out immediately.”

“Relocate them to inland regions. The relocation plan should be implemented as quickly as possible.”

At the Emperor’s command, the atmosphere in the conference room sank heavily. Of course, it was still part of preparations for a war that might or might not happen. Even if war broke out, civilian damage needed to be minimized.

Raul’s thinking was that even if it was a necessary war that needn’t be avoided, citizen sacrifice should be minimized. He was already an Emperor who had gone through one war during his reign.

Perhaps because of this, his attitude toward the hair-trigger situation seemed very calm.

“How about taking the initiative and helping the third prince’s rebellion instead? Rather than entering full-scale war, that would be……”

“No. Unless the third prince’s side reaches out first, if we propose rebellion first and fail, even our justification disappears. Moreover, the border region with Simon has been neglected for a long time. If we can expand the border and claim territorial rights, this war could actually be an opportunity.”

His attitude of calculating only gains and losses precisely before war even made him look like someone who wanted war. His somewhat empty gaze seemed tinged with slight despair. However, the judgments the Emperor made were impeccably sharp and his orders precise.

It was fortunate for Tirantus.